Social protection has emerged as a key development and humanitarian policy issue in the last decade. There have also been major food price shocks in many countries in the last five years. Interest in social protection and food systems is converging, and donor agencies and governments are looking at how different social protection instruments might better support the different components of food systems and maintain their resilience in the face of major shocks.​

This project, through a series of reports and briefings, explores the impacts of social protection instruments on resilient food systems, including cash transfers, public works programmes and insurance, as well as broader initiatives that contribute to reducing povery and vulnerability, such as integrated livelihoods programmes, emergency reserves and structured demand. A synthesis report revies the main findings from each paper, draws out patterns in the effectiveness of the instruments and explores main issues that emerge across all the papers.